Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance Industries Group, recently announced that his subsidiary Jio Platforms has its own 5G technology. Ambani said at the press conference: "Jio Platforms has created a complete 5G solution from scratch, which will enable us to launch world-class 5G services in India, using 100% domestic technology and solutions. Once we get 5G family tree, this 'Made in India' 5G system will be tested and fielded in 2021. Once the 5G equipment is approved in India, Jio Platforms will provide 100 Made in India 5G systems to other operators around the world."
Ambani also said that Google has promised to invest US$4.5 billion in Jio Platforms and will cooperate with it to develop 4G/5G mobile phones.
According to a report on the website of The Hindu on July 13, Sundar Pichai, CEO of the American technology giant Google, said on the 13th that the company will invest 10 billion in India in the next 5 to 7 years. USD, with a focus on digitizing the economy and creating India-first products and services.
Pichai, who is also CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said at the company’s annual event: “We will invest in operations, infrastructure and ecosystems through equity investments, partnerships and investments in operations, infrastructure and ecosystems. "This reflects our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy," he said. Investments will be focused on four areas that are important for the digitalization of the economy, including Give every Indian access to information in their mother tongue at an affordable cost, create products and services that are closely relevant to India’s unique needs, empower businesses in their digital transformation journey, and leverage them for social good such as health, education and agriculture Technology and artificial intelligence.
Reports pointed out that with the news announced on the 13th, Google became the latest American technology company to invest in India. In April this year, the American social network giant Facebook acquired 9.9 shares of the Indian digital services company "Gio Platform". In January this year, the American e-commerce giant Amazon announced that it would invest US$1 billion in the next five years to help Indian small and medium-sized enterprises digitize.
According to reports, in India, Google has invested in a number of start-ups directly or through Alphabet’s growth fund, including Dunzo, Fender, Harry Labs, etc. Speaking at the event, Indian Communications and Information Industries Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressed hope that Google will focus the new fund on further promoting the development of Indian startups.
Mukesh Ambani is known as Asia’s richest man. CNN reported that while he is eyeing the Indian market for U.S. technology companies, Asia’s richest man seems to be positioning himself as a helpful gatekeeper.
Most of the technology investment in India this year, including all of Facebook and nearly half of Google, has gone to companies controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Jio Platforms, the digital arm of India's Reliance Industries, has raised more than $20 billion since late April from companies, venture capitalists and sovereign wealth funds that want to use it as a fast-track conduit for India's vast digital economy.
Jio launched as a mobile network in 2016 and quickly amassed nearly 400 million users. With recent forays into e-commerce, digital payments, streaming services and even Zoom-like video conferencing platform JioMeet, Reliance Industries appears to be looking to transform the company into an all-encompassing Indian ecosystem.
Silicon Valley clearly wants in.
"It is much easier for U.S. technology to enter the 'Great Wall of India' created by Jio; all it has to do is pay a toll to Reliance," Chaturvedi said.
As one of India’s largest companies run by India’s richest man, Reliance has huge local clout and is exempt from many of the regulations around data storage and e-commerce that have dominated Facebook, Google and Amazon's obstacles.
Chaturvedi said: "No global player can do this as quickly as Reliance. Many e-commerce regulations and data localization laws in India are affected by Reliance."
As the Trump administration increasingly isolates the U.S. economy from the rest of the world, Silicon Valley will expand its horizons, and India is ripe for it, Lemley said.
"What I find unbearable is that America is nowhere near as innovative as it was five years ago," Lemley said. "As the Trump administration increasingly struggles to bring the best and brightest from around the world to people brought to Silicon Valley, I think technology companies may be looking for a new center of innovation."